Hello pet sitters!
I’m sitting at an Internet cafe in India and just wanted to check in.
I’ve been away for three weeks now: first in Bali and then a week ago I arrived in India.
This has been an incredible (and in some ways life-changing) trip so far and I still have 7 weeks that I’ll be traveling.
I met some incredible local people in Bali who really took me under their wings and invited me to temple ceremonies and to share meals together. Meeting these wonderful local people helped me really immerse myself in Balinese local culture in a way that I never anticipated.
The inner and outer beauty of the Balinese people was lovely to experience. The natural beauty and lushness of Bali was also a real gift.
I’ll be heading back there in 4 weeks to experience 3 more weeks there before I head home in April. I’m thrilled to go back to Bali as, in some ways, it feels like ‘home’.
India…is another story.
I arrived in Pune, India a week ago and there was a bombing at a restaurant that I was considering going to the same night it was bombed.
Instead of going to the restaurant I chose to meditate in the ashram I was staying at.
Had I been in the restaurant I would have been either injured or killed as everyone who was there experienced some type of injury.
The last count, according to the media reports, was that 11 people were killed and 60 people were injured. Everyone who survived the blast lost all or partial hearing in the bomb blast plus many other injuries.
I’ve never come this close to major injury or death and having this experience has helped me get in touch with, on a deeper level than ever, what is really important in this life.
I’ll be leaving Pune tomorrow and going to a beach town south of Pune (13 hours train ride from Pune).
Relaxing near the water after all the activity of Indian police and Indian army, not to mentioned the frayed nerves of the tourists and locals, will be a good thing!
On a lighter note, I have noticed how challenging it is for me NOT to go online on a daily basis. Even though I have not done any Six-Figure blogging or any work-related Internet activities, I have done A LOT of personal emails and personal Facebook checking while I’ve been away.
I’ve been exploring what it is like to not log on for one day and let me tell you: it is challenging.
So my next edge is to try not log on for a couple of days at a time.
It’s harder than it sounds! I encourage you to try it.
I notice even though not logging on for a day is challenging I feel so much more involved in life when I’m not logging on for 24 hours at a time.
Even today, I’ve somehow managed to be online for nearly 2 hours! 2 hours that could best be spent exploring this city that I won’t be in for much longer.
And on a final note:
Though I deeply love my work (working with all of you is SUCH a gift as is running my pet sitting business) I’m experiencing how deeply restorative it is to my soul it is to not work for a long period of time.
I wish you all a wonderful rest of February. I may or may not check in again in March.
If not, I’ll be back in action in April when I return from my travels!
Take good care,
Kristin
It’s usually pretty slow in the pet sitting industry in January. After the hustle and bustle of the holidays that have just passed this can be welcome relief. For others you may be wishing/needing new business now to keep up with expenses that ocurred over the holidays.
No matter where you are: busy or not busy, glad it’s slow, not glad it’s slow, there are some very specific tasks that you can and should do this month to insure business success all year long.
Here they are:
1) Pay your Q4 2009 estimated tax payment by January 15 for both State and Federal taxes. It’s important to get in the habit of keeping current with taxes for each calendar year or you will be faced with hefty penalties and interest if you have not paid enough for 2009 taxes.
2) Begin to set aside money now for your Q1 2010 estimated tax payment that will be due by April 15, 2010. How do you do this? Put an envelope on a bulletin board in your office. Get in the habit of putting a minimum of 10% of whatever total from checks that you receive into that envelope. Next create a tax savings account and every month deposit that money into your tax savings account so when it comes time to pay your quarterly payments you will be breathing easy because guess what? You have the money.
3) Place an ad for staff now and spend leisurely time hiring the perfect staff members. This time of year is the best time to hire people–you are not in a hurry and probably don’t desperately need staff members the way you did, say, over the holidays. You want to hire people when you don’t need them. That way they will be ready to go when you do get busy and your judgment will not be impaired by an intensity of need to fill particular pet sitting jobs.
4) Get those 1099s out in the mail to your staff by January 29, 2010. The government will charge you $50 for each and every 1099 that is not sent out by the end of January.
Next make sure to send your information to the government no later than the end of February or same thing: you will be charged $50 for every 1099 that is received by the government after the end of February. Ouch!
5) Write your goals for this month and for the New Year. Setting goals is one of the most powerful actions you can take in your business. It sounds simple, right? It is. The simple act of writing your goals will help you take actions that will enable you to create what you want this year.
I did it last year at this time as I do every year. But last year I wrote:
I will go on a two month trip in 2010.
I saw that goal there day after day on my bulletin board (it’s very important to post your goals where you can see them) and I began to take big and little actions to support that vision.
A year ago taking this trip was just a pipe dream.
Six months ago I started seriously considering it.
And now I’m going.
You can read more about setting and achieving business goals in my goal setting for pet sitters blog post below.
6) Take the word ‘recession’ out of your vocabulary. That’s right. I know…you turn on the news and it’s recession this and recession that but STOP. Don’t allow yourself to go there or engage in conversations that take you into a downward spiral about the economy.
I can tell you this: for myself and those pet sitting clients that I drilled this into last year: we all had the best year ever!
In a supposed recession.
Why? Because we refused to engage in the conversation of the recession and instead focused on what tasks needed to be done in order to succeed in our businesses.
YOU can have a financially successful year no matter what the media says.
Here’s how: turn off your TV when negative economic news comes on, let friends and family know that you are committed to having the best financial year ever and that you don’t want to talk about a poor economy, when you do get discouraged remember that there are hundreds of other pet sitters across the country who had the BEST YEAR ever in 2009 and that you can create that experience for yourself this year.
Happy 2010 everyone!
For many years I ran my pet sitting business as many pet sitters do–manually and with a vast paper trail.
I was not running my business in an efficient, stream-lined way. I knew something had to change and yet I found myself afraid to take the leap to an online scheduling system.
Here were my some of fears about signing up for an online scheduling system to help me manage my business:
What if a sit falls through the cracks? I know my paper system is cumbersome but at least I know it works!
How will I move my hundreds of clients and many staff members to an online system? It will be too much work to move everyone over.
What if I can’t learn the system?
So I had my fears but I also had a deeper desire to create freedom in my business. Freedom to travel, to have my managers be able to manage the business from their own homes, freedom to have my staff be able to access their schedule from wherever there is an Internet connection.
When I did a demo for Power Pet Sitter I was blown away by the possibilities available for managing and running my business by having an online scheduling system in place. It took me about a month to learn it. Yes, sometimes the learning curve was tough but one day the system fell into place in my brain and I just really got it.
And now managing my business is a breeze.
I invite those of you who are ready to take your business to the next level to check out Power Pet Sitter. Let them know you heard about Power Pet Sitter from the Six-Figure Pet Sitting Academy and they will give you a large discount on your first few months of service.
In exactly three weeks I’ll be heading to Bali.
I just got back from my annual New Years retreat in Santa Cruz and have a massive to do list before I leave at the end of January. Yesterday I decided to extend my trip for an extra two weeks so instead of being gone for two months like I’d planned, I will be gone for two and half months! Wow.
I’m thinking back to that fateful conversation about travel that hot August day in 2009 in my friend Peter’s peaceful office…with his great questions…gently probing me with words to get me to my truth around my desire to travel…and now here I am. Getting ready for my trip.
Amazing how one decision six months ago can create a new adventure like this.
But that’s how life changes happen. One foot in front of the other until there you are-where you wanted to be six months earlier.
Things are falling into place. I found a subleaser to rent my house for two and half months. She gave me the deposit last week and tonight she gave me the balance for the rent. I can tell she’s going to take good care of the place and I’m excited to have her stay here and experience the healing energy of my tranquil, retreat-like home.
My managers are stepping in to manage my business with such love, caring and an excitement for my going away. I cried at our business meeting last week as I thanked them for their steadfast support around my trip. It was an unusual business meeting. Crying at a business meeting? It was beautiful.
We all got a little teary.
I’m nervous and excited. Going away for two and half months feels like a bit of a dream right now. Surreal.
I’ll be in Bali for 2 weeks then India for 5 weeks then back to Bali for 3 weeks.
A Bali sandwich.
This blog’s topics will switch for a short time from my pet sitting business tips and tools to my writing about my travel adventures. I don’t know how often I’ll check in and post as I have decided NOT to bring my computer with me.
I need and want to unplug.
I don’t know about you but one of the best ways for me to unplug is to leave my cell phone and computer behind.
There are always internet cafes along the way…
I’m hoping my travels will inspire some of you who haven’t had a vacation in years (very common in the pet sitting industry) to open your mind to the possibility of having time off. If I can do it, anyone can. I used to be a total control freak about my business. I still am very particular about the way it runs but I’ve also learned how to let go on a deeper level in the last few years.
Having great staff members makes all the difference in the world, folks.
And for those of you who aren’t interested in travel adventures on this pet sitting business blog, no worries.
I’ll be back in action again in May with business-related blog posts, exciting teleclasses, pet sitting business coaching, and my continued commitment to your pet sitting business success.
As I’m sitting here writing this blog post I’m reflecting on just how powerful setting goals has been in my business and personal life.
Writing goals each year has helped me:
~achieve (and often surpass!) the level of income I want to create
~work the kind of schedule I want to work (3-4 days a week)
~hire the right kind of people and the right number of people for my business
~run my business in a outside-the-box way that adds to my happiness, prosperity and well-being
Did you know?
In 1953, researchers surveyed Yale’s graduating seniors to determine how many of them had specific, written goals for their future. The answer: 3%.
Twenty years later, researchers polled the surviving members of the Class of 1953 — and found that the 3% with specific, written goals had accumulated more personal financial wealth than the other 97% of the class combined.
Do you have specific, written goals for your business?
If not, it is time to start:
Here’s how:
1) State your goals in the present tense.
An example of a goal for hiring would be: “I hire 3 pet sitters” instead of “I will hire 3 pet sitters”. Writing your goals in the present tense, as if those goals are already happening affects our subconscious mind in a positive and powerful way. The subconscious mind only operates in the now. If you create goals in the future tense, your subconscious will never support you in achieving your goals.
The subconscious mind is a powerful force and if it is not supporting us it can sometimes sabotage our success (and lack of success) in life. Get your subconscious in alignment with what you want to create in your business and your life this year–by writing your goals in the present tense so your subconscious can assist you in achieving what you want to achieve this year.
2) Set clear, specific and measurable goals for the year. When setting an income goal you want to be very specific about what that amount will be. If you want to make over six-figures in your pet sitting business this year, write the specific amount you want to make: “I gross $110,000 and I net $60,000″ instead of writing “I make six-figures this year” .
Important: many business owners often don’t think about their net income when setting goals. Don’t forget about net! A reminder: your gross is the total amount your business generates and the net amount is the amount your business actually makes after all expenses are tallied. Therefore, your net is the real amount your business makes and it is the one to focus on as your net income is the barometer that enables you to know whether or not your pet sitting business is financially supporting you.
3) Set a date by which you will achieve your specific goal. Let’s go back the hiring goal so I can demonstrate what that will look like when you write your goals. Remember: you want to keep that hiring goal in the present and yet have the date by which it is due be in the future.
Here’s what the hiring goal will look like as a written goal: I hire 3 pet sitters by March 1, 2010. See that? Your goal is still stated in the present (not ‘I will hire’, but simply: ‘I hire’) and it has a specific date by which you are going to achieve that: March 1, 2010.
4) Break your goals into small steps and put those small steps in your calendar now. If you have the goal of hiring 3 pet sitters by March 15, 2010 your simple steps might be:
~my hiring paperwork is organized by February 10, 2010
~I put an ad on Craigslist by February 15, 2010
~I conduct face-to-face interviews between February 21-February 28
~I complete the hiring process by March 5, 2010
Putting small steps in your calendar now is a simple way to break down a daunting or big goal into bite-sized chunks.
5) Keep your goals where you can see them on a daily basis. This step is crucial. I’ve found that when I have my goals in clear view I’m much more apt to do the actions it takes to achieve them.
I’ve worked with hundreds of pet sitting coaching clients from around the country who are amazed at the simple act of power that setting goals in their pet sitting businesses can be. Will you be one of those amazed pet sitters next year?
Write out your business goals this year and let me know at the end of 2010 what you created in your business and your life as a result. I’d love to hear from you!
Below are 5 of the most important tips for holiday pet sitting and dog walking business success:
1) Charge and enforce a holiday fee. Many pet sitters are resistant to charging a holiday fee because they are afraid or embarrassed to ask for more money over the holidays. Get over your fear and DO IT. You (and your staff) are giving of your time to work during this special time of year and deserve to be compensated for it.
2) Have your holiday fee be over the holiday period, not just on the actual holiday days. My holiday period this year is Dec. 20-January 3. Clients are charged an additional $5 for visits and $10 per night during this entire period.
Charging a holiday fee for the entire holiday period can help your profit increase by $500-$1,500+ during the holiday season!
I recommend that half of that holiday fee goes to the sitter working that particular holiday job. The other half goes to the company. Obviously if you are the one doing the job(s) you would receive all of it.
Why should your company get a portion of that holiday fee if your staff are doing the holiday jobs? The bulk of December reservations are often (obviously) only around the holidays so often times pet sitting business owners will find they are super stressed this time of year but are not making any more money than they might make in say, April. Having you, the business owner, receive a portion of that holiday fee will help your business thrive financially during the holiday season.
3) Figure out exactly how many visits you want to take NOW so you can have a sane holiday. Holidays only come once a year, folks. It’s up to you to decide now how you want to spend the days that are special to you.
If you want to spend Christmas day pet sitting from morning till evening with a brief holiday dinner in between jobs that is no problem. If that is what you want.
But if you don’t want that, decide now and limit the number of visits that you are willing to take. Make a time plan of the special holiday days that matter to you (Christmas Eve/Christmas/New Years) and block off the time for you that is sacred. Be clear and firm that nothing can touch that time you have blocked off for yourself and your family, no matter how insistent a client might be that YOU are the only one who can care for her pets.
Sound easy? It’s not. That’s why deciding now and sticking to a holiday time plan will help you stand behind your no (or help you get a staff member to take an insistent client).
4) Have all of your holiday cards and gifts purchased and sent off by December 18. If you get all of the holiday preparation done by December 18 you will be able to focus on the business of pet sitting and be able to enjoy your own holiday period. Start today by outlining all that you need to do to be fully prepared for the holiday for both your business and personal life. Next write down the action steps that you need to do between now and December 18. Put the action steps in your calendar on the specific days that you intend to accomplish them.
Example:
December 7: Purchase holiday cards, purchase staff gift cards
December 8: Write holiday cards
December 10: Mail holiday cards
5) Buy yourself a holiday gift to honor all the hard work you’ve done in your business this year. Why is this a success tip? Because it is a way of honoring all the hard work you’ve done this year. When we honor ourselves, more money flows to us. Always.
This is an action step I give to my coaching clients this time of year and sometimes it is the hardest action step they can take! Allow yourself to give something to you. Pet sitting is a business of serving and taking care of others; explore a way to bring that focus to yourself in the form of a gift for you.
Here are some gifts that pet sitters have bought for themselves to honor the work they’ve done in their businesses: a six-pack of massage certificates to use at various times in 2010, a novel that a pet sitter has been wanting to read all year but hasn’t made the time to read (part of her gift to herself was putting time in her time plan to read the book too!), a 2-day spa retreat with a girlfriend in January, a new car (!), a dinner out at a favorite restaurant.
Happy Holidays everyone!
For many more holiday success tips you can purchase the Riches and Relaxation for Holiday Pet Sitting Recording.
This will be my last teleclass before I head out for my 2-month trip around the world until April 2010.
I’m a business coach who practices what I preach and I’m offering this teleclass to share my secrets with all of you wonderful pet sitters before departing for my traveling adventure.
This teleclass will truly change your life by profoundly transforming the way you relate to your work and your work schedule! You will come away excited and ready to create a work schedule that is beyond your wildest dreams (while being firmly rooted in reality).
Most pet sitters think that they have to work long and hard hours to create a successful and profitable business. If you are one of them you are not alone.
I thought that I had to work countless hours to make a lot of money until the year I began running my business in a completely different way.
In one year I began transforming my relationship with my business and the way I ran my business. To my surprise and amazement my profits began to rise even though I was working much, much less! It didn’t make sense at first (in fact it blew my mind a bit!) but then it completely made sense.
In less than one year, I went from working 12-14 hours a day, 7 days a week to working three 8-hour days a week.
If you have an established business and responsible staff members that you trust, you can too!
All it takes is some out-of-the box thinking and a willingness to try some new ways of running your company that I will outline in this teleclass so that you can create the schedule that works best for you in 2010.
Whether you want to take one day off a week, weekends off, or create a 3-day workweek like I created, it’s up to you. I will tell you how to do it and outline the step-by-step method necessary to create time off.
Click here to find out more and to sign up for the How to Create a 3-Day Pet Sitting Workweek Teleclass.
As most of you know I will be traveling to Indonesia for 2 months in late January. This is a dream I’ve had for years.
When I first started my business I was able to do world travel for six to eight weeks at a time fairly easily because my business was smaller and thus, I didn’t have a lot of clients and staff.
Now my pet sitting business is huge: we cover two enormous counties, have over 30 pet sitters on staff and close to 700 pet sitting and dog walking clients!
Thankfully I also have 2 trustworthy and competent managers who run my pet sitting and dog walking business as well as I do. I also have two back-up managers. Having these 4 managers in place is definitely the only way I could be able to travel and leave my business humming along for 2 months.
But it’s not all I’ve needed…
THE most powerful tool (besides my managers) that is helping me travel for two months is Power Pet Sitter.
Power Pet Sitter is an administration software system for pet sitters that enables my managers to manage my pet sitting business from the comfort of their own homes. By using Power Pet Sitter my managers can easily access client data, schedule sits for clients, send the schedule to the staff, invoice clients and powerfully run my business for me while I am out of the country!
It took me a long time to use an administration system. I’d been doing things by hand for years and years and years. And it worked. But it was tedious. And it wasn’t an empowering way to run my pet sitting business.
Most of you know I do not recommend products for pet sitters unless I believe in them 100% and stand behind them with every ounce of me.
Power Pet Sitter is one of those products. If you are interested in running your pet sitting business in a way that is more ease-filled and empowering I encourage you to contact Power Pet Sitter today.
If you mention that were referred by the Six-Figure Pet Sitting Academy, you can sign up for Power Pet Sitter and receive 3 months free when signing up for 6 months. You will prepay for 3 months and you get 3 months free. It’s a great way to try out this system. This offer expires December 31, 2009 and is only valid for Six-Figure Pet Sitting Academy students and fans of the Six-Figure Pet Sitting Academy. You must specify that you found out about this discount from the Six-Figure Pet Sitting Academy in order to receive this special discount.
Power Pet Sitter is the #1 tool that is enabling me to step away from my business more and more and to create the right work/life balance for myself that includes 2 months of travel in 2010!
I highly recommend Power Pet Sitter (and, as I mentioned above, I don’t recommend things lightly -products have to *really* be amazing tools for pet sitters for me to toot their horn!) Power Pet Sitter is one of those products.
Once you sign up you won’t know how you lived without it.
And maybe you’ll find YOURSELF planning a two-month vacation away from your pet sitting business in 2010?
Click the link to find out more and to sign up for Power Pet Sitter today.
Save $10 if you sign up by Tuesday, November 3!
Date: Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Time: 5:00pm PST / 8:00pm EST
How does class take place? Via a conference call line. Call-in instructions will be given upon signup.
How long is this teleclass? 60 minutes of open forum for questions and answers!
How much: $20 (register by November 3) $30 (register November 4 or later)
Class description: In this 60-minute dynamic and interactive open forum, the first 10 pet sitters and dog walkers who sign up will have the opportunity to ask Coach Kristin their most challenging pet sitting questions. If there is time left over then Kristin will open up the line for additional ‘impromptu’ questions.
If your question relates to business or pet sitting-you can ask it! As a pet sitting business owner you are guaranteed to find this Q & A session with Coach Kristin compelling, supportive, and ultra-informative.
How do I get my question answered: The first 10 pet sitters who sign up will be contacted via email about their question and will be instructed on when to ask their question. If you are not contacted within 72 hours of signing up for the class it means you are not one of the first 10 callers. You will still receive valuable business information when you listen and learn from others having their questions answered.
Limited spots available so reserve your spot TODAY!
Click here to find out more and to sign up for the ASK ANYTHING! Pet Sitting Business Q & A Teleclass with the founder of Six-Figure Pet Sitting Academy.
A couple of blog posts ago I wrote about why client conflict can be good for business. Now you’ll find out how to deal with it!
1) Remember when you have an angry person on the phone or emailing you that this is an opportunity to create an even better relationship than you had with this client before they were angry. Print out the “How Conflict Can be Good for Business” blog post and keep it near the phone or your computer so that when you are REALLY freaked out by a screaming client you will have something to calm YOU in the face of all that negative energy.
2) If you are on the phone: let the client have their screaming fit. They need to get it out of their system. If you interrupt them in midstream they will lash out at YOU and you don’t want that.
Here’s what to do: Think about this upset client as if they are an angry dog.
As a pet sitter who is around dogs all the time, you probably realize that most angry dogs need to express their anger by snarling and baring their teeth. Once they’ve had their say, they will often just turn around and be on their merry way. But if you interrupt them by talking “Nice doggy” or stepping forward, they most likely WILL attack. Both of these actions interrupt the dog’s process to express his anger.
Words to live by when dealing with client conflict: Breathe. Listen. Don’t interrupt.
3) If the client has emailed you, DO NOT email back. Call them or email only to find a time to meet in person or on the phone. One of the best business tips I ever received is do not discuss any difficult issues via email. (This tip is invaluable for personal relationships too.)
Take the issue to the phone or in person. Why? Communicating a difficult subject via email creates a wall between you and that other person. You can remove the wall (or at least make it a wall you can peer over) by hearing that person’s voice and/or meeting them in person.
4) When the client is done spewing then let them know you heard what they said and you will do whatever it takes to rectify the problem. How do you know when they are done? Count for three LONG seconds.
If they have not spoken during the entire three seconds it is okay for you to talk. Say, “I’ve heard you and I’m so sorry for the part we’ve had in upsetting you.”
Put yourself in their shoes and let them know that you completely understand how they could feel that way about whatever it is that upset them. (People want to be heard and not made wrong for what they are complaining about–give them that gift and most clients will be forever grateful.)
Offer to give them money back. If one of your sitters did a lousy job then ask your sitter if they will pay for the mistake. (You cannot do this if they are an employee, only if they are an Independent Contractor.) If you feel that you are to blame because you weren’t clear with your staff-own that mistake and be willing to refund a portion or the full amount of their pet sitting fee. Also be willing to apologize to your staff if the communication error was on your part.
5) After you’ve offered money back ask your client if they need anything else by saying: “I’m truly sorry about this. Is there anything else I can do to make this right?” And be willing to do it.
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Six-Figure Pet Sitting Academy™ logo and all text by Six-Figure Pet
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